Yesterday Russian grandmaster Boris Savchenko won the Russian Cup event Moscow Open 2013 by scoring 7.5 out of 9 points. We were able to find Boris in the hall of the RSSU Cultural Center before the start of the award ceremony. The winner was surrounded by a crowd of participants and guests congratulating his victory. We joined the congratulations and asked Boris to say a few words about the tournament, his success, chess plans for the future and some other things.

- Now I can confess, - Boris begins - that already before the start of the event I felt the inspiration and I knew that I had to 'catch this wave' and needed to find a way to realize it, which was our beloved "Moscow Open 2013" tournament. I was very optimistic during the opening rounds though I could not have predicted that this was the way it would turn out. Sometime everything just goes your way, and sometimes it doesn't.

The ninth international RSSU Cup "Moscow Open 2013" was concluded on Sunday evening, February 10th, on the Russian State Social University campus.

The awards to the winners and medalists of the competition were presented by the Chair of the Guardian Board of the Russian Chess Federation Arkadi Dvorkovich, the first deputy head of Moscomsport Nikolai Gulyaev, RSSU rector Lidia Fedyakina, RSSU founding rector Vasily Ivanovich Zhukov and first vice-president of the Moscow Chess Federation Nikita Kim.

Evgeny Sveshnikov (Latvia) allowed himself only two draws in nine rounds of competitions for veterans. With 8 points to his name the grandmaster took clear a first place, a full point ahead of the three nearest participants.

Silver went to Yevgeny Dragomaretsky on a tie-break rules , bronze to Mishuchkov, with Vladimir Kachar not making the podium.

The Russian Cup Moscow Open 2013, held within the the Festival, was won by Russian grandmaster Boris Savchenko. In the final round, in a complex, but not entirely error-free game, he managed to prevail over his compatriot Pavel Ponkratov. It allowed Boris score 7.5 points, half a point above the rest of the competition. The three remaining games in the leading group that day ended in a draw.

Nine participants finished the competition with 7 points. Tie-breakers put Yan Nepomnyastchy second, while the third went to Pavel Maletin (both - Russian). Tie-break rules left seven players without medals: Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan), Dmitry Kokarev (Russia), Eduardo Iturizaga (Venezuela), Chanda Sandipan (India), Nikita Matinyan (Russia), Ildar Khairullin (Russia), Pavel Smirnov (Russia).

The 16-year-old Dinara Saduakasova was unable to remain at the top of the table in the students grandmaster tournament. The Kazakh chess player, who was in the lead throughout the entire tournament, lost to Irina Vasilevich (Russia) in the final round, allowing two participants - Anastasia Savina and Olga Girya,  who won in the 9th round against their rivals, to catch up. All three players scored 6 points, but the tie-breaker rules smiled upon Savina, who was declared the winner of the tournament. Silver went to Girya, and Saduakasova took only the bronze.

Marina Romanko managed to repeat her last season success, winning the open women tournament at the Moscow Open, the open Russian Chess Cup, for the second time in a row. After beginning the event with seven consecutive victories, Marina started losing steam, drawing in the eighth round and then losing to Anastasia Bodnaruk in the ninth. Nonetheless, 7.5 points were enough to be tied for the first place. Romanko was challenged by Tatiana Khlichkova who defeated Lidia Tomnikova in the final round. However, the tie-breaker was in Romanko's favor.

Places third to eighth went to seven players, each scoring 7 points. They are Russia's Lidia Tomnikova, Anastasia Bodnaruk, Viktoria Tarasova, Maria Komyagina, Tamara Tcheremnova and Maria Manakova (Serbia). The bronze went to Tomnikova on the tie-breaks.

Two Russian participants – Nikita Khoroshilov and Ivan Uraev – earned the same number of points - 8 out of 9 In the amateur tournament (group C). In the final day Khoroshilov made a draw against Airat Vafin (Russia), while Uraev defeated Ivan Yudin (Russia). The tie-breaks gave the victory to Khoroshilov, while Uraev had to settle for the second place.

Artur Garagozyan (Armenia) and Airat Vafin scored 7.5 points each. Garagozyan was awarded third place on the tie-breaks.

16-year-old Russian player Yuri Eliseev won the round-robin competition at the RSSU Cup for student grandmasters. Playing against substantially older competitors he managed the highest score: 6 points out of 9. On the last day of the competition he settled for a draw against Jan Krejčí (Czech Republic).

Second and third places, half-a-point behind the leader went to two other Russian players, Vladimir Belous and Mikhail Mozharov. In the last round Belous ended a game against Alexey Reshetnikov (Russia) in a draw, while Mozharov defeated Panayapan Sethuraman (India).

Elisabeta Polihroniade: We Hope Chess will Become a Compulsory Subject in Romanian Schools

- We hope that chess will become a compulsory subject in Romanian schools, - says Elisabeta Polihroniade. Multiple time Romanian champion and grandmaster Elisabeta Polihroniade was the head of the appeal committee at the International RSSU Cup Moscow Open 2013. A day before the conclusion of the event she answered jounralists' questions in the festival's press conference room. The topics for discussion were scholastic chess, journalism, among others.

- Elisabeta, this must be your twentieth visit to Moscow.
- I am not certain. When I was young and only started playing chess on the international level, this was the only place I wanted to play in. Not in Paris, not in London - only in the Soviet Union, in Moscow. It's because I knew that you had very strong chess players, and naturally, I also wanted to be a strong chess player.